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About Me

Hussam has been a lifelong human rights activist who is passionate about promoting democratic societies, in the US and worldwide, in which all people, including immigrants, workers, minorities, and the poor enjoy freedom, justice, economic justice, respect, and equality. Mr. Ayloush frequently lectures on Islam, media relations, civil rights, hate crimes and international affairs. He has consistently appeared in local, national, and international media.
Full biography at:
http://hussamayloush.blogspot.com/2006/08/biography-of-hussam-ayloush.html

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Kerry says U.S. looking to accelerate fall of Syrian regime

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during a meeting in Rome on
(Giuseppe Lami / EPA / February 27, 2013)

By Paul Richter

February 27, 2013, 2:00 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State John F. Kerry
said Wednesday that the United States and allies are jointly planning
new ways to accelerate the fall of the Syrian regime, amid signs that
Washington may begin directly providing non-lethal aid to opposition
fighters.

Speaking in Paris one day before a gathering of Syrian opposition
officials and world leaders in Rome, Kerry said U.S. officials and
allies are discussing ways to convince Syrian President Bashar Assad
"that he can’t shoot his way out of this. ... We are examining and
developing ways to accelerate the political transition that the Syrian
people want and deserve.”

As many as 70,000 people have
died in the almost two-year-long war between forces loyal to Assad and
opposition fighters, according to the United Nations.

Administration officials, who have been under growing political
pressure to expand the U.S. role, said they are weighing whether to
begin directly supplying equipment such as armored vests and armored
vehicles, which are non-lethal but valuable on the front lines. They
remain opposed to providing arms, despite pleas from the rebels and many
top U.S. officials.

Directly supplying aid would be significant for an administration
that has been intent on limiting its involvement in the fight, and could
presage other moves toward deeper involvement, analysts say. To date,
the administration has provided humanitarian and non-lethal military aid
through the political opposition and aid agencies, rather than directly
to the fighters.

Such a decision "would be a big step, in that the former policy line
of staying clear of armed groups would have to be redrawn," said Andrew
Tabler, a leading Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy. “That has policy implications going forward.”

Tabler said that in the absence of a “political track” --
negotiations between the two sides to end the conflict -- direct aid to
the fighters was “inevitable.”

The administration has been reluctant to provide arms because of the
difficulty of knowing which of the dozens of loosely connected armed
groups are trustworthy, and which might end up aligned with dangerous
militants. But critics have argued that in the absence of U.S. arms,
militant factions grow stronger and the U.S. fails to build ties that
could be valuable when it comes time, after the war, to build a new
Syria.

“Hesitation and half-hearted support such as
non-lethal equipment is no longer sufficient to stop Assad’s barbarism,”
said Hussam Ayloush, national chairman of the Syrian American Council, a
pro-opposition group. “We have a moral duty, as one of the world’s most
powerful nations, to provide the Syrian people with every means to
defend themselves and their families.”

Jay Carney, the White House
press secretary, said the administration is trying to help the
opposition “become stronger, more cohesive and more organized. As part
of this effort, we will continue to analyze every feasible option that
would accelerate a political transition to a post-Assad Syria.”